Donald Trump doesn’t star in “Beatriz At Dinner” though in every way, except physically, John Lithgrow is him with the name Doug Strutt. Strutt is a billionaire owner of luxury hotels, and golf courses, around the world among other buildings, who will ask Beatriz (Salma Hayek), after mistaking her for ‘help’ to get him a drink, who is corrected and proceeds to ask Beatriz if she is in this country legally.

Strutt cares for no one, including his third wife, besides himself and he does anything to get rid of people or things that get in his way. He cares nothing for the environment or society unless it benefits him. He is the 1% of society who is the dinner guest of honor, with his wife Jeana (Amy Landecker), at the home of business partner Grant (David Warshofsky) and Cathy (Connie Britton) which also includes their young new lawyer Alex (Jay Duplass) and his wife Shannon (Chloe Sevigny).

Beatriz is a masseuse and healer working mainly for a cancer clinic and has private clients such as Cathy who the former cared for the latter’s daughter when, as a teenager, had cancer. Cathy looks upon Beatriz as a friend and when she is getting ready to leave only to find that he car won’t start and she has to call a friend for help who won’t be able to arrive for awhile it is only natural that Cathy asks her to join the dinner party and Beatriz accepts.

Beatriz lives alone with her 2 dogs and a goat who she is very protective of including keeping the goat in a pen in her bedroom who she is afraid her neighbor might kill. She is, I believe divorced and may have a daughter who died.

It isn’t long before Beatriz and Doug butt heads especially after he shows a picture of his having killed a rhinoceros in Africa and boasting about it.

“Beatriz At Dinner” is a short movie, only 83 minutes, but in this case should have been longer. Did Beatriz have a daughter and is the telephone call to her? What does the white squid have to do with anything? It is the scenes between Hayek and Lithgow, and they are excellent, that hold the audience’s attention but there are too few of them. And what is the meaning of the ending? Where and why do the other dinner guests fit in to all of this and why not a scene, even a short one, between Beatriz and the two household helpers?

“Beatriz At Dinner” is an interesting film with rich performances by SalmaHayek and John Lithgow but doesn’t go far enough into what could be a meaningful film!